2025 VBA Breakfast Recap

Greetings!

We had a lovely time at this year's Annual VBA Breakfast and wanted to share it with those who could not make it!

Bud & Alley's outdid themselves yet again and delivered a delicious spread of food for us, along with their beautiful venue! Dave and his team at Bud & Alley's have generously hosted our VBA's for 10 years (more on our milestone to come) and we are so thankful for their support throughout the years!

Announcements & Recognition

We spent time thanking our community sponsors who support our mission of education & awareness!

Dave White, editor, and publisher of South Walton Life
Matt Algarin, Director of the Walton County Tourism Department
Grand Blvd. Festival of Trees

We enjoyed honoring all our VBA's, and the time you've contributed to the Friends of South Walton Sea Turtles mission. Whether you gave one hour or hundreds of hours YOU are an essential part of the South Walton VBA team & we're thankful for you!

VBA Totals

Total VBA's	New	Renewals	Total Hours
129	40	89	3,500

Please continue to enter your hours for our year end nonprofit totals!

Enter Your 2025 VBA Hours

VBA Awards

50-99 Hrs

100-199 Hrs

New VBA with most hours:

Greg Steiner: 75.8

Sheryl Brown

Sandy Coffman

Mindy Fradella

Dot McClurg

Nick Taras

Terry Bounds

Beth Coppedge

Gina Cornelius

Ellen Wolchok

Greg Wolchok

Tisha Cowley

2X Diamond VBA: Marilyn Levesque

Marilyn's day-to-day is all about VBA service, and we're so thankful for the many hours she puts in year after year. She has enough plaques to build a small house so we knew we had to think outside the box this year! You'll have to ask her or Beth about the "Umbrella Story", but we were so thrilled to present this personalized umbrella to her!

💎 Thank you for your service, Marilyn. You are a true gem to FOSWST!

200+ Hours	💎 Diamond VBA's
Marilyn Levesque	624.25 hrs - Double Diamond
Leigh Patterson	244 hrs - Donation Jar collector in Seaside!
Paul and Jonette Coram	240 hrs each - first highest hours for couples!

🏆 VBA of the Year | Mindy Fradella

Beth shared the following about Mindy,

" This VBA award goes to the person who helps with programs & education as well as beach work. This year she helped with a lot of behind the scenes work and also contributed the most hours to education, outreach and community events. She’s the person I could always call for help with any project I was working on. I really appreciate having her as a part of our team."

Congratulations, Mindy! We are pleased to have Mindy join us on the board of directors for 2026.

Schools Visited for 2025

Community Events 2025

• Meigs Middle School

• STEMM Academy

• Acton Academy

• Wildlife 30A Summer Program

• Freeport Middle School + Beach Program

• Plew Elementary School

• Silver Sands School

• Dune Lakes Elementary School

• Dune Lakes Summer Program

• Ohana Institute + Beach Program

• Seaside Neighborhood School + Beach Program

• Camellia Festival @ Eden Gardens

• Earth Day @ Biophilia Center

• Margaritaville Beach Clean up

• Jonah Art Gallery Events

• Hometown Heroes @ Silver Sands Outlets

• Grand Blvd Festival of Trees

Share your photos!

We would love to see how your VBA season has been going! Whether you're picking up trash, filling in holes or chatting up visitors, we'd love you to share your photos!

Please send your VBA photos to media@friendsofswseaturtles.org , or tag us on social media @30aseaturtles!

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